PowerHouse – A house that earns, and perhaps sends Priya to school
“I want to go to school”, said Priya to her mother, who was drying out the clothes and looked back at her in dismay. A family of 4, with 2 children, of which Priya was the older, was not sent to school for lack of funds and the need to supplement the family income, which was partly from cleaning houses and cultivating fields besides other odd jobs done by her father.
“The soul of India, lives in its villages”, claimed Mahatma Gandhi in the 20th century, who had fought for a bright future. Today, in 2015, we still have close to 26 million homeless families, struggling to ends meet. It is not only difficulty of access to funds for the millions but several other hindrances in the system which makes it very difficult for those in the unorganized sector to live in their own ‘pucca house’. A holistic solution is the need of the hour.
Powerhouse-A house that earns is a mission in this direction.
Powerhouse, launched on 5th June, 2015 is a global collaborative mission to design not only a house, but even the process of enabling such a solution to the potential end users. The wish-list involves renewal sources of energy powering up the low cost home and generating more than the required quantum. The excess will be sold back to the grid securing earnings for the occupants. Earnings from the house can then be used to pay back loans/ mortgages taken up by the owners for its purchase.
The mission is backed by CSVI (CRISP Social Ventures India), which comprises of Chevening scholars in India and supported by others like the British High Commission, the UK India Business Council and others.
Since a holistic solution is the need of the hour, it is believed that a consortium comprising of a wide spectrum of industry experts will be effective in finding such a solution. A global competitive bid is coming up; for which expressions of interest from global consortiums are requested. Interested parties can submit their applications at www.Power-House.in
The CSVI team strives to send the many Priyas to school through this mission.
